Finn, she called out with her mind.My Lord and Master. I am ready for you. I am ready to be your whore.
Dimly, she was aware that the wave on which the faerie king arrived, riding a black kelpie – half faerie horse, half serpent’s tail – submerged the whole of the empty, muddy Thames shore. But she was already under Finn’s influence and couldn’t know whether Gabriel had got out of its way in time.
Finn swung her onto the back of the kelpie, and she clung to his waist as the creature dived back under the water.
29
‘I knew you would come.’
Finn Beatha, High King of the realm of Murias, removed her cowl-like hooded coat and threw it to one side of the palatial bedroom. This time, they hadn’t even had to travel through the marketplace and the court of the castle of Murias in which he resided; Faye had passed out underwater and awoken, strangely dry, in the room she remembered so well.
She didn’t trust herself to reply and so remained silent.
‘You called out to me in desire. You called me to be your lover again,sidhe-leth.’ He stood behind her and kissed her collarbone, his hands travelling over her breasts. ‘What took you so long?’
His warm hands smoothed the black silk of the dress she wore. Already it seemed impossible that just an hour ago she’d been at the party, and moments ago at the muddy tide-line of the Thames. Already her memory of the ordinary world was fading, and Finn was filling her senses. She leaned back against him, remembering how his muscled torso fit perfectly against her back; remembering how sure his hands were, how he knew exactly how she wanted to be touched.
‘Are you no longer the human man’s lover?’ Finn breathed against her neck. For a brief second, the mention of Rav made Faye freeze, but she controlled herself with her breath.
‘No.’ She said no more, but it seemed that was enough for Finn.
Faye felt within herself for the anger that had made her summon Finn in the first place. It was still there, a fire that burned in a rich velvet blackness that threatened to snuff it out.No, she reminded herself.Tend the fire. Use it to burn your way out of here if you must.Yet, at the same time, she had to submit to her desire for her plan to work. And so she turned to Finn and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her. There was no reason not to now. She’d ended it with Rav.
Lyr’s crystal was stuffed into her bra. She panicked about what to do with it if he undressed her.
‘I’ve missed you,’ she said, and it wasn’t a lie; none of it was, as her lips found his and drank his kisses as if they were wine.
The fire of his touch on her skin made its way to the flame of rage that smouldered deep inside her, and when it made contact, it acted as a current. The anger flowed into her body and wove itself into her desire for Finn.This, this, her body told her, as her instinct combined kiss with bite and sweetness with a hunger to consume him she’d never felt before. Faye dragged him to the bed, her nails digging into his perfect, golden skin. She’d drawn blood where she’d bitten his lip, and she ran her tongue over it, measuring him with her eyes.
Surprise flashed briefly in Finn’s ocean-blue eyes, but a hungry smile turned up one corner of his mouth.
‘I see that mysidhe-lethhas grown claws,’ he murmured as she pushed him onto the wide, deep bed. ‘I am your willing subject, tigress.’ He chuckled, clearly thinking that this was a game. Faye was grateful for the fact that Finn’s colossal ego – and his love of pleasure – blinded him to the idea that anyonemight be able to keep a cool head while they were making love to him.
She tore off her dress. Underneath, she wore only a brief black lace thong and her black strapless bra, which she kept on, hoping he wouldn’t tear it off. He reached for her, but she pulled away quickly, knowing she had to take control. Ripping her dress in half, she took both stretches of the black silk and tied his wrists to the golden bars that linked the bedposts. Finn craned his neck, wanting to kiss her, but she straddled him and sat up away from him and shook her head, smiling.
He groaned as her soft thighs grazed his abdomen. He was hard already; she could feel him against her. She could also feel how wet she was already; her panties were soaking.
The fiery desire that filled her now was something different to before. She wanted Finn just as much as she had before, lost in a whirlwind of lust. She wanted him inside her, wanted his mouth on every part of her; she wanted to hear him call out her name when he came, urgent and hot. But unlike before, where she’d felt pulled under the waves, unable to do anything but submit to her most shadowy erotic pleasures, now she wanted to render Finn powerless to resist her actions, not least because she needed to stay focused; she needed to find Aisha.
With Rav, she had revelled in taking the lead, but she had never been able to do it with Finn. Finn was always in charge. He was her lord and master in the bedroom, and that was how it had always been. But when Rav had bowed his head to her and treated her like the queen she knew she was, it had filled her with wave upon wave of pleasure.
Slowly, she caressed Finn’s soft, tan skin. She traced the shape of the large kelpie tattoo that reared up the side of his muscular torso and up his neck.
‘Sidhe-leth. Untie me.’ Finn smiled lazily, but he pulled his arm away from the bedpost with some vigour. ‘You have had your fun.’
‘Oh, no. I haven’t begun yet.’ She smiled, watching him struggle. She was relieved that she had tied him tight, and that the bonds held.
‘Faye. Untie me.’ His voice grew more serious.
‘Not yet,’ she purred, and stood up momentarily to remove her panties. She straddled him again with them wadded up in her hand. ‘I have plans for you.’
Trailing her fingertips along his skin with one hand, she kissed his chest, listening to him moan with pleasure and desire. His hips pushed up under her, but she pressed him down firmly.
‘Oh, I don’t think so.’ She smiled wickedly and held the panties in front of his face. His eyes widened.
‘What do you think you are doing?’ he asked.
‘Exactly what I want,’ she replied levelly. ‘Open wide.’
